


The Artist's Songwriter

by athlanna



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Cute, M/M, Slow Build, gay main character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 02:41:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14369139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athlanna/pseuds/athlanna
Summary: An aspiring artist unknowingly runs into a world-famous singer, assumes he's straight, and falls in love with him anyway.





	The Artist's Songwriter

**Author's Note:**

> It's been so long since I've posted anything on here, and I'm excited to get back into it. This was written mostly in one day, so forgive me if there's a lot of repetition or anything seems off. Criticism is welcome.
> 
> Edit: Apparently it's been over 2 years since I last posted :o

This morning I met this guy, by spilling coffee on him. I must’ve apologized a million times before even taking a single step back, and I slowly felt embarrassment wash over me.

“Hey it’s alright. It happens,” he said while smiling at me and dabbing at the coffee spot on his jacket.

“I’m so sorry,” I said again. He waved my apology off for the hundredth time as I grabbed him more napkins.

He chuckled, “It’s really alright. Accidents happen sometimes. I’m not really a fan of this jacket anyway, so don’t worry about it. I can always buy a new one.”

“It looks expensive though,” I cringed after really looking at it. It looked to be real leather.

“Ah, this one was given to me, so I don’t know.” I must’ve grimaced hard enough for him to notice immediately.  
“Don’t worry about it. Things don’t last forever, and I was due for a new jacket anyway. Tell you what, why don’t you help me pick out a new one?” I suddenly realized people were taking photos and wondered if he was some kind of internet celebrity that I’d never heard of or something. I decided to accept his invitation since he was really nice about the whole coffee situation and seemed like a decent guy.

“Yeah sure. When?”

“Why not right now? I mean, unless you have somewhere to be soon, that is,” he answered. I quickly thought about what I was doing later, and concluded that I was in fact not busy. Plus I kind of wanted to hang out with this guy more and get to know him. You could probably call it a crush at first sight. I internally giggled at that thought.

“No, I’m not busy later. Where are we going?” I quickly paid the waitress and apologized for the mess.

“Dee’s,” he replied flatly as he began walking towards the exit. I started to follow, surprised he wanted to go to such an expensive store, and began to wonder who he really was.  
“It’s a bit of a long walk there, so we’ll take my car if that’s alright?”

“Yeah, no problem,” I replied. We began walking towards an expensive looking older Mustang.  
“Is that your car?” I asked in surprise.

He chuckled, “Yeah. She’s a beauty, isn't she? I love this car.” No words could escape my lips, and I simply walked forward in amazement on autopilot. _Who is this guy?!_ More people were taking photos and teenage girls were giggling and fangirling simply at the sight of this guy.

“Um, hey, so, not to be rude or anything, but who are you?” I asked as I climbed into the passenger seat of his car. He seemed to know this question was coming.

“So you really don’t know?” He paused for a second. “I’m sorry, that sounded narcissistic and that’s not what I meant.”

“It’s alright.” I waited patiently for his answer as to who he was.

Smiling, he stuck his hand out towards me. I took it. “Hi, I’m James Lischten, world-famous singer for Devil’s Desires.” I could only stare in awe. There was no way this was real.

“You’re J Lisch?!”

He laughed at my astonishment, “Yeah, that’s me. And you are?” I shook my head and cleared my throat.

“Ah, I’m Matt Berns - Berns spelled with an e though - aspiring artist. I actually submitted an entry when your band was hosting that album art contest.” At this point, James had started the car, and we were heading downtown.

“Right. I remember your name. There was a vote between yours and the one that won, actually. It was really close, and honestly, I voted for yours. It was really eye-catching and interesting.” I felt my face flush and smiled humbly. I turned my head and looked out the window as we continued driving in near-silence. The radio was on at a low volume, and the rumble of the exhaust that was close to completely drowning out the song that was playing was the only sound.

Within 10 minutes, we’d reached downtown and spotted a place to park.

“It’ll still be about a 2 minute walk to Dee’s from here, but at least we found a parking spot,” James announced as he turned off the engine and started getting out.

“That’s fine with me,” I replied. I closed the passenger side door behind me and caught up to James, who was waiting for me at the back of the car. As I neared him, he turned to his right and began walking.  
“So, do you always shop at Dee’s? It kind of seemed like your default store back there. Because there was no hesitation, I mean,” I asked, breaking the growing silence between us.

“Yeah, I usually go there. It’s got some pretty decent quality clothes so I thought ‘why not?’” he answered.

“I could never afford to shop there,” I said bluntly.

“No? I could buy you a couple things if you’d like?” James suggested. 

I politely declined, “No, that’s alright. I don’t want to spend your money.” Just as I finished my sentence, we arrived at Dee’s, the biggest and most expensive clothing store in this city. 

“You sure?” he pressed.

“Yeah,” I replied subconsciously. Again walking on autopilot, still following James, I looked around in awe at all the beautiful pieces of clothing, handbags, and jewellery. After about a solid minute or two of walking through the store, we came across the leather jacket section, exactly where James was headed. It’s like he knew exactly where it was. Had he been here that many times?

After looking through the jackets for a short while, James held up two to me and asked, “Which one do you like more?” I snapped back to reality and took a good look at them. The left one was black and had silver studs on the shoulders and silver buttons. It also boasted a couple straps coming from over the shoulders with silvery buckles. The right was a dark brown with black details, similar to the other jacket, but minus the shoulder straps. I also looked at his attire, assuming that was what he usually wore: raven black hair, ripped black skinny jeans, black goth-like boots, and a navy blue t-shirt with light-coloured details, and the same light colour at the end of the sleeves and bottom of the shirt. Like me, he seemed to like a lot of black.

“Can you try on the black one?” I asked. James nodded and handed me the brown one so he could put the other one on. Once he took it off the hanger, he also handed that to me, and for once in my life, I felt helpful and useful. He adjusted the jacket so it fit nicely, and opened his arms up to show me. He gave a graceful, slow spin, and joined in with my laughter.  
“I like this one.” 

“Me too. Should I try on the other one too, or just buy this one?”

“Try this one on too, just to be sure that’s the one you want,” I said. He agreed, and he took the brown jacket as he handed me the black. I returned it to it’s hanger, and James put the brown jacket on and displayed himself the same way as he did with the other. 

Once he stopped his spin and looked at me, we simultaneously said, “The black one.” I grinned at him and he giggled like a schoolgirl. I felt my heart nearly ache and my face get warmer. I mentally shook my head because I could never fall for this guy. There’s no way in Hell he’d be with someone like me, especially since I’m a guy, and I seriously doubt he’s even gay. I shut these thoughts away, and after putting the brown jacket back, black one over his arm, we continued walking through the store looking and trying things on. Well, he was the one trying things on for me to give my opinion on. Soon enough, his arms were full of clothing, and throughout the whole time, people were onlooking and taking pictures of James. After a few moments, one of the store employees came over to us and offered to carry James’ items for him, since there were no shopping carts - which, by the way, I thought was strange. Maybe it’s a rich-people-store thing.

“Thank you,” James said to the man.

“No problem, sir,” he replied. His nametag read Felix, and he was a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man with black hair and a thick Australian accent. We walked a little more, reaching the shirt section again, and James turned to me.

“Pick a couple shirts,” he told me.

“It’s alright. I don’t want to spend your-”

“Please,” he cut me off. “I insist. Pick 3 or 4, as payment for dragging you around the store with me.”

I hesitated, then said, “It’s really no big deal. I enjoyed walking around with you.” He turned to Felix.

“Felix, will you please take those to the counter?” Felix nodded and started walking away, understanding that James wanted to talk to me alone.  
“Matt,” he started. He hadn’t said my name until now, and it sent a shiver through my body the way he said it. 

I looked up at him, a bit scared, and answered, “Yeah?”

“Please, I want to buy you something. Though we haven’t known each other very long, I like you, and I want to be your friend for a long time.” There it was. The “friend” word. Slight disappointment coursed through me.

“Friendship isn’t achieved through buying things though,” I countered. He half sighed, half chuckled.

“No, I know, silly. It’s to prove that I care about you and am not just saying these things. Don’t look at any price tags and choose 3 shirts. Ready? Go.” He grasped my shoulders and turned me to face the wide selection of t-shirts. I sighed deeply, defeated. I looked back at him, and he smiled, gesturing with his head for me to pick a couple shirts. I began looking through the shirts, consciously not looking at any price tags as James instructed. I came across a black shirt with a collection of skulls on the front that caught my eye. It must’ve been obvious that I liked that shirt because James began speaking.

“Go ahead. I’ll hang onto it while you keep looking.” I reluctantly grabbed the shirt off the rack and handed it to James. I stood looking at him for a short moment.  
“Go on, pick a couple more,” he told me, gently pushing on my left shoulder to turn me. I walked a few feet down the aisle before finding another shirt I liked. I glanced back, and he smiled at me, silently telling me to give it to him if I liked it. I did.  
“One more,” he said. As I continued searching, I accidentally looked at one of the price tags and almost had a heart attack.

“$145?!” I exclaimed.

“Hey, I told you not to look at the prices.”

“James, I can’t let you buy these for me,” I begged. He waved my request off.

“Nonsense, I-”

“No, James. You can’t-”

“Matt,” he said sternly, interrupting my interrupting him. I stopped talking, looking at him with concerned, sad eyes.  
“I will do with my money what I please. It’s really no big deal. Please don’t worry about it, alright?” he finished. I was speechless, and looked down at my feet helplessly. James sighed softly after pausing for a moment.  
“If you don’t want to choose another shirt, that’s fine and I understand. But please let me buy these two for you.” I looked back up at him, a genuine and kind expression on his face.

“Okay,” I said hesitantly, defeated once again. He smiled at me once again, and waited for my response. I thought for a short while, and then made my decision.  
“I think… I’ll just stick with those two.” James’ smile widened, and he nodded in confirmation.

“Alright. I have everything I want, so shall we head to the counter to check out?” he said in question form. I smiled back at him, and we headed off to the front of the store. Felix was standing there, James’ things on the counter beside him, and smiled at when he saw us heading over. There was a beautiful young brunette behind said counter, ready to scan our items.

“Hello, did you find everything you were looking for today?” she asked us, albeit directed more at James.

“Hi, yes, thank you. Got a couple more shirts here, and that’s everything,” he said back to the woman. She was pale in complexion, and almost in perfect contrast to Felix; she was thin and short. 

While she was scanning, her and James were talking back and forth, him occasionally mentioning me in conversation. I listened in to some parts, and it seemed as if they were flirting, but more so her than him. Clearly she knew who he was, and was seemingly desperate in trying to get the conversation to turn to relationships and going out. It sounded as if he was ignoring her on that part though. I tuned them out and just looked around the store some more while I waited. 

After a good 2 or 3 minutes, everything had been scanned and James was about to pay, and I glanced at the total: $3,141.59. I died internally, absolutely shocked at the cost of everything. James simply grabbed his wallet from his back pocket, pulled out his credit card, and held it to the debit machine. After a couple seconds, the machine beeped, and he put his card and wallet away. Felix began collecting the bags as James and I headed for the exit. 

“Felix, we parked a few blocks away, so if you’ll wait here, I’ll bring the car around,” James said as we reached the doors.

“Of course, sir,” Felix replied. He set the bags back on the counter, and we headed out to fetch the car.

After returning to Dee’s and Felix put everything but James’ new jacket into the trunk, we drove off deeper into downtown, him donning his new favourite addition to his wardrobe.

“Where are we going now?” I questioned. He glanced over at me briefly and then looked at the radio, seemingly checking the time. It was about noon.

“Wanna grab lunch?” he asked. I hadn’t had the chance to eat breakfast, so I was getting pretty hungry.

“Uh, sure. Where at?”

“Why don’t you pick? What are you craving?” I thought for a moment, my mind mostly conjuring the word “burger”.

“Well, really all I can think about is burgers.” James laughed, still waiting on me to decide where we should go. We stopped at a red light, and he looked over at me. I blushed slightly and quickly resumed talking.  
“So how about, um… are you good with fast food?” He chuckled.

“Dude, I am always up for fast food. McDonald’s?” he replied.

“You read my mind,” I answered. And with that, we drove to the nearest McDonald’s. Since I hadn’t eaten all day and was really hungry, I decided I wanted a Big Mac. I also decided that since James took me shopping, that I would buy lunch for us.

“Hey, so, since you, you know, took me shopping earlier, I thought I could buy lunch.”

“I guess that’s fair,” he said. I was surprised he agreed, and after searching for a parking space for a few minutes, we got out of the car and went inside. There was a bit of a line, so we spent our waiting time just chatting away. He asked me te usual “new person” questions, like where I worked, where I grew up, and how old I was.  
“I always thought you were 20 or 21,” he giggled awkwardly, and I smiled at him. “You’re 3 years older than me,” he finished.

Astonished, I said, “You’re only 22?” James nodded slowly, and a young girl who seemed to be in her mid-teens approached us.

“You’re J Lisch!” she squealed. Heads turned our direction and I’ve never felt so in-the-spotlight before. He smiled brightly at her.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he replied. She asked for an autograph, and I wondered what it would be like to be famous and have people adore you. I was pulled from my thoughts when James tapped my shoulder and indicated we were next in line. I apologized, and told the man behind the counter my order, then James did the same. 

“That’ll be $32.25,” the man said, expressionless. I took out my wallet, opened it, and sighed. I only had $40, but I was going to pay nonetheless.I took out a 20, 10, and 5 dollar bill, gave it to him, and he handed back my change. We then moved out of the way and waited for our food.

“You know, if you didn’t have much money, you didn’t have to pay,” James said, giving me a concerned look.

“Don’t worry about it. I get paid again at the end of the week,” I said. I could still feel his eyes on me as I sighed, realizing I wouldn’t have much to spend on food for the next couple days.

We looked for a seat after receiving our food, found an open booth near the windows, and sat to eat. It didn’t take us long to finish our food, seeing as we didn’t get the chance to have breakfast because some idiot had to spill his coffee on a celebrity, who then dragged him to the most expensive clothing store in the whole goddamn city to shop for a couple hours. 

My mind drifted off, and soon we were back in James’ Mustang, driving around the city with no set destination.

“Do you want to go anywhere else today, or would you rather I take you home?” James asked suddenly. I started feeling sad at the thought of going home right then, because I just wanted to be around James for the rest of the night.

“I don’t really want to go home yet. It’s so lonely there. This is the first real human interaction I’ve had in a long time,” I answered.

“It’s only 2:30, so I guess it’s still too early to end the day, huh?” He shot a quick grin in my direction, and I sent him one back, and agreed.

We ended up picking up food for later, drove out of the city and up the mountain, parked the car, and just sat on the hood talking for hours, enjoying the view of the city and surrounding forests and distant mountains. All the while, I fell deeper in love with James. As the day became night and it got later, I dreaded more and more having to go home. We didn’t check the time until 1:00am, and James declared it was time to go. The drive back into the city was about half an hour, and we sat in mostly silence, just listening to the radio and roar of the car’s engine. As we closed in on the outskirts, James asked where I lived, and I told him. He didn’t seem to mind that I lived almost across the city from where we were, which was another 35 minute drive.

“I’m sorry that I live so far,” I apologized. He waved me off.

“It’s no problem. I’ll happily drive across the city to pick you up or drop you off.” He smiled, and I returned it. He stopped in front of my house.  
“You’ve got a pretty decent sized house compared to a lot of houses in this city there.” I chuckled, unsure how to respond.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I looked out the window at said house. “Well, I suppose I should probably get out and go to bed huh?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, I have to go to bed now too,” James replied.

“I’m sorry for keeping you up-”

James shook his head, “It’s alright. I had a lot of fun today. When do you get off work tomorrow?”

I thought for a moment, remembering that it’s now Thursday, and replied, “I get off at 3.”

“Wait,” he started. “Didn’t you have to work today?” I shook my head.

“I have Wednesdays off. Anyway, I should probably go now. I had fun too. Goodnight, James,” I said as I exited the car.

“Goodnight,” James called after me as I closed the door and began walking away. He revved the engine slightly before pulling away from my driveway. I sighed deeply before walking up to my front door, unlocking it, and walking in. I locked the door behind me, kicked off my shoes, turned off the lights I apparently left on, and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I plugged my phone in, set it on my dresser, and removed my pants and t-shirt. I hit the lights before crawling into bed and snuggling into the comforter, physical relief washing over me as I relaxed and stretched out. I laid there for a few minutes thinking about the day and James, before falling into a much-needed sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if the end of this chapter seems rushed, but I was writing until after 5am and wanted to post it on Booksie last night before going to bed. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless :)


End file.
